VARIATIONS IN BLOOD-PRESSURE DURING THE MONTH OF RAMADAN

The goal of this work is to study the consequences of the fast on vari ations of the blood pressure (BP) in the course of 24 hours. From 1994 to 1997 we have selected 99 hypertensive patients and studied their B P profile. This study included 72 women and 27 men. Their age varies f rom 22 to 72 years (average 56.7 +/- 9 years). All these patients had an ambulatory blood pressure measurement (ABPM) before the fast and du ring Ramadan. Before Ramadan the period of the sleep goes from 19 pm /- 1 h to 8 am +/- 1 h. During the month of Ramadan, the sleep lasts f rom 0 h +/- 1 to 9 am +/- 1 h. The BP of 99 hypertensive patients is s ummarized in this table. [GRAPHICS] No statistically significant diffe rence is noted between these 2 periods neither for the systolic BP (SB P) nor for the diastolic BP (DBP), for the BP of 24 hours, and the diu rnal and nocturnal periods. We have then the compared the hourly avera ge on 24 hours of the 99 patients, We observed that during the month o f Ramadan the peak of the awakening is delayed by 2 hours and the noct urnal trough is delayed by 1 hour. After this study, wich is the first one to deal with variations of blood pressure during the fast of Rama dan we can confirm that in patients with essential hypertension withou t complications, the fast is well supported. The variations of BP are minimal and are related to the variations of the sleep, activity and e ating pattern.